As Australia prepares for a federal election, the contest for rural and regional seats is likely to be one of the most fascinating aspects of the 2019 poll. Already, country independents are pushing incumbent MPs against a backdrop of disappointment and disengagement with politicians and the parliament across the country.

Gabrielle Chan will examine why politics is changing in rural areas and how it may impact on the outcome of the next election.

Gabrielle Chan has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She began covering politics in the 1990s for The Australian in NSW parliament and the Canberra press gallery. Since 2013, she has worked for Guardian Australia as a political correspondent and Politics Live blogger. Gabrielle has also worked for ABC radio, the Daily Telegraph, in local newspapers and politics. She has written and edited histories and biographies.

The city-born daughter of a Singaporean migrant, Gabrielle moved to a sheep and wheat farm near Harden, Murrumburrah, in 1996. She noticed the economic and cultural divide between city and country and the yawning gap between parliament and small town life. As a result, she wrote Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up, released in 2018 by Penguin Random House.

Tuesday 12 February 2019

Australians will go to the polls this year in what is one of the best regulated voting systems in the world. But while the integrity of the vote is assured and compulsory voting a safeguard against extremist minorities it is not enough to restore or maintain faith in democracy.

Truth has become a commodity for media outlets. The business model dictates editorial choice of stories and the slant they receive. The trivialisation of politics and the unwillingness to hold power to account by a banal equivalence of views has reduced news to entertainment or worse an echo chamber of bigotry.

Hugh Mackay AO Hugh is a social researcher and the bestselling author of 19 books. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities, elected a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and, in 2015, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. His presentation will focus on the role of compassion in lowering anxiety and building stronger communities.

Tuesday 29 May, 2018

As we spread across the surface of the planet, fighting for rights, squabbling over resources and networking wildly via social media it is tempting to feel that the horizontal is everything. But the cross requires both horizontal and vertical, and therein lies hope.

Elizabeth Farrelly is a writer, columnist, thinker and author, with a background in philosophy and architecture, a love of farming and poetry and a yearning for the vertical.

Recent years have seen a steady rise in the politics of fear and hatred. Political debates have become sharper and the media more polarised. These developments should be particularly worrying for progressives. Dr Leigh will argue a politics of love isn’t a bohemian hangover, but essential to building a more egalitarian Australia. A strong social safety net demand empathy for the most vulnerable, and a willingness to build a more decent and tolerant civic culture.

Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in public policy from Harvard, having graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in Law and Arts.

Andrew is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a past recipient of the ‘Young Economist Award’, a prize given every two years by the Economics Society of Australia to the best Australian economist under 40. His books include: Disconnected (2010), Battlers and Billionaires (2013), The Economics of Just About Everything (2014), and The Luck of Politics (2015).

Andrew is a keen marathon runner and hosts a podcast, The Good Life, which is available on iTunes.

Question 1: Tax reform as a challenge to economic liberalism open to be accused of playing the politics of envy or dismissed as wowserism as have been church concerns about regulation of alcohol and gambling

Question 3: Why do so many people vote against their own best interest?

Question 4: How did the government get its first budget so badly wrong?

Question 5: Disconnect between Christian values of political leadership and delivery of programs to promote Christian social justice values. How can we strengthen the discourse to encourage delivery on social justice outcomes?

20 October 2015: Climate Change, Steve Hatfield Dodds

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11 November 2015: For Those Who’ve Come Across the Seas: Justice for refugees and asylum seekers. Joint forum with the Catholic Social Justice Commission. Speakers: Jon Stanhope, Sr Jane Keogh and Felix Macharidza

26 February 2014: “Overturning Tables, Knocking off Heads of State, and Other Ways of being Responsible Christian Citizens”, Professor James Haire

Question 1: You say that Christianity is fundamentally internationalist? To what extent do you consider that national citizenship undermines international citizen particularly having regard to the huge concentration of wealth?

Question 2: Please comment on the rivalry between churches for example in the provision of welfare services and education.

Question 3: The corruption of public debate and the fiction of free market as a requisite for economic growth.

Question 4: To what extent has Government funding of service delivery suppressed the prophetic voice of the Church?

Question 5: The Church leadership is articulate and mostly effective when it comes to securing funding from Government but not on issues where there is no prospect of financial gain?

Question 6: How does Christian subversion play out for people in positions of power in the community?

Question 1: You mentioned that you became a Christian later on in life. In Treasury and Westpac how did you find operating as a Christian and how was it different from before you became a Christian?

Question 2: Australia’s net indebtedness to the outside world. The moral issue is that our generation is passing on indebtedness to our children and grandchildren. Is that not something that we as Christians and members of the community should not be very concerned about? Why does Treasury never seem to have any concern about Australia’s current account deficits and our net international debt position?

Question 3: What difference does it make to a public policy officer being a Christian? Did you ever feel there was a conflict between what you had to advise and your belief?

Question 4: Was there a conflict in Christian leadership when you’re on the board of Westpac bank which are commonly thought of to be solely driven by the profit motive in terms of Christian obligation towards the poor and disadvantaged?

27 November 2013: “The Good Life: a community affair”, Hugh Mackay

Question 1: Optimism: I want to ask you about optimism. The state of things today with threats like climate change. Are we living in a perpetual state of optimism? Do you see a crashing correction happening as a result of our lifestyle and population growth being unsustainable?

Question 2: Can you explain the tension in politics between the qualities like self-control, responsibility and community appropriated by the conservative side of politics while on the other hand promoting untrammelled individualism in the economic sphere?

Question 3: How can one inculcate in children the values of the good life when these values are so much in competition with the values of the society in which they are growing up?